Ladies and Gentle Men I bring you... UpMedia... how to upload and how to view...

UpMedia has occurred from the universities not just Plymouth but universities in general's view to keep all their eggs in one basket! This isn't a bad thing since I'd much rather have social workers or Nursing students where confidentiality is key to create videos for their courseworks on our servers rather than somewhere else out there in the world! Having said that to compete with someone like YouTube or Vimeo is always going to be a uphill struggle.

Plymouth Universities answer to this is to implement UpMedia a system based on Helix with the idea that the videos can be uploaded via a Module/Programe separate to that sites file space, UpMedia does this job perfectly and it encodes the files into a universal standard under the RealMedia codec which VLC supports (quickly looks at the above picture). UpMedia has only just been opened up in the past 24hours so there are many bugs with the system so I'm sure with time we'll have a slick and easily to use system.  

How to I get to UpMedia?

Currently UpMedia is only listed on your Modules/Programme pages (soon to be on your MySite), you first need to create a UpMedia library for that site then you can upload to it. 

How Create your UpMedia library:

1. Go to your site and click on the bottom link on the left hand menu "Administration".
2. Under the tiny heading of "Create" you should see three links... no they are three links not just one long link (heard of lists?), click on "More". (as shown below)
3. Then BAM you should see a link titled "UpMedia" and their snazy logo (fair play whoever created that logo does look cool). Click on this link. (again as shown below)
4.  You'll be asked to give it a name and if you would like emails upon changes and if you want it displayed in the left hand menu (tick as you so desire). 
5. Click submit and your done! 

How do I upload to this new UpMedia Library? 

1. Go to the newly created library, if you ticked the box for it to appear in the quick menu it'll be listed under "Lists".
2. Then click on the "add new item" link:
   
   
   
3. This'll bring a pop up window where it'll ask you to browse for the file you wish to upload, browse for the said file and click ok. (I've found it doesn't like files over 2gb).
4. As soon as your click ok it'll start uploading:
   
   
5. Once the uploading process has done it'll put a little tick to the left of the name... I'm assuming it'll refresh over time but to give it a little prod click the greyed out "ok" button to get it to refresh (don't click your refresh button).
6. You'll then be asked to fill out some key information fill it out and click "Continue" take note as you go through the "tick boxes" as this is where you can list it on itunesU etc (more on this once the systems properly live).
   
   

   

   (click to make it bigger)

7. Your final step is to select a screen grab to be used as a thumbnail (or you can upload your own custom one). and where you would like your file to be listed under etc click finish and your upload will be complete. 
8. It'll finish by giving you a message of "You are logged in as: [username] Media file data saved successfully". Then close this box (it doesn't close automatically yet). 
9. Refresh your page and BAM your newly uploaded file will display. 

.RM What's that? How to I play my finished file?

1. Go to your UpMedia library with the newly uploaded file. Click on the thumbnail and it'll start downloading. 
2. If you have VLC or RealPlayer on your computer it'll play fine....
3. If not download VLC for free PLEASE download VLC not RealPlayer... although use RealPlayer if you want just I'll sleep better at night knowing your using VLC instead of RealPlayer. 

Well that's all I've got to say about UpMedia so far, its great that its here and I'm sure your all just as excited as me that we now have somewhere to store all our large video files rather than using external space (if its over 10min that is). Hats of to the team who created it, would not like the stress of creating such a large system as this to hold a rather large amount of users etc! So High Fives and Pancakes!